Isaiah 6:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 6:11
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֑י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
answered
וַיֹּ֡אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
cities
עָרִ֜ים'a.Rim
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wasted
שָׁא֨וּsha.'U
H7582
to rush · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
inhabitant
יוֹשֵׁ֗בyo.Shev
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
houses
וּבָתִּים֙u.va.Tim
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
man
אָדָ֔ם'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
land
וְהָאֲדָמָ֖הve.ha.'a.da.Mah
H127
soil (from its general redness) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
utterly
שְׁמָמָֽהshe.ma.Mah
H8077
devastation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
desolate
תִּשָּׁאֶ֥הti.sha.'Eh
H7582
to rush · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 26:31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
Psalms 90:13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
Psalms 94:3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
Isaiah 1:7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthro…
Isaiah 3:26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.
Isaiah 24:1-12 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Psalms 79:5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Psalms 74:10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:9–end
God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand - to foretel the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for that ruin - to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgment…
how long--will this wretched condition of the nation being hardened to its destruction continue?
until-- (Isa 5:9) --fulfilled primarily at the Babylonish captivity, and more fully at the dispersion under the Roman Titus.
John Gill on Isaiah 6:11
Then said I, Lord, how long?.... That is, how long will this blindness, hardness, stupidity, and impenitence, remain with this people, or they be under such a sore judgment of God upon them:
and he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate; until there is not an inhabitant in the cities of Judea, nor in Jerusalem, the metropolis of the land, nor a single man in any house in them; which denotes the utter desolation of the land and city; and can refer to no other than to the desolation thereof by the Romans; and till that time the blindness which happened to them continued; the things which belonged to their peace wer…
And I said, How long, O LORD? Although the Prophets are severe in denouncing the wrath of God against men, yet they do not lay aside human feelings. It is therefore necessary that they sustain a twofold character; for they must proclaim the judgment of God with high and unshaken courage, so that they would rather choose that the world should be destroyed and utterly ruined than that any part of His glory should be taken away. And yet they are not devoid of feeling, so as to be unmoved by compassion for their brethren, whose destruction their office lays them under the necessity of foretelling. These two feelings, though they appear to be inconsistent, are in full harmony, as appears from the…
The Church Fathers
See here that the rest of the earth is desolate, and those who remain on the earth alone are said to multiply. These must be the disciples of the Savior, going forth from the Hebrews to all people. Like a seed left behind they have brought forth much fruit, which are the churches of the Gentiles in every dwelling place. In addition, when he says that only those who remain from the falling away of the Jews will multiply, he also says that the Jews themselves are desolate. For he says of them, "Their land shall be left desolate." And this was said to them before by the same prophet, saying, "Your land is completely desolate, your cities burned with fire, before you strangers will devour your country."When was this fulfilled other than in the time of our Savior? Before they dared to do evil things to him, their land was not desolate, their cities not burned with fire, and strangers did not devour their country. Our Savior and Lord predicted what was to happen to them through that prophetic announcement, saying, "Your house is left to you desolate." It was not long from the prediction of that moment that the Romans laid siege to them and brought them to desolation. The prophetic word gives the reason for the desolation by showing the cause of their fall, making the understanding of it clear. When they heard our Savior teaching among them but would not listen with the ear of the mind and did not understand who he was, seeing him with their eyes and not with the eyes of their spirit, "they hardened their heart, closed the eyes of their mind, and made their ears heavy." As the prophecy says, their cities would become desolate such that no one would live in them because of this. In addition, their land would become desolate, and only a few would remain, being kept like fruitful seed who would proceed to all people and multiply on the earth.
(Verse 11-13.) And I said, how long, Lord? And he answered, until the cities are desolate and without inhabitant, and the houses are without people, and the land is left empty. And the Lord will remove men far away, and what was abandoned in the midst of the land will be multiplied. And even in it there will be a tenth, and it will be turned again to destruction, like a terebinth tree, and like an oak tree that sheds its leaves, the holy seed will be the stump that remains in it. The Lord said: Go, and tell this people, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them (Deut. XXXII). The prophet responds, anxiously questioning about his people: How long, Lord, will this message endure, that they hear but do not understand; and see but do not perceive? To whom the Lord responded, for so long will not hear, and will not see, and will have a blind heart, until the cities of Judea are completely destroyed by Vespasian and Titus fighting, to the extent that not even the original name remains, and if there are any houses left; they will be without inhabitants, and the land will be reduced to a wilderness; and either by fleeing or by captivity, the Jewish people will be dispersed throughout the entire world: and the Jewish people will multiply not in Judea, as before, but in all the nations. But when I say that it will multiply, the misery of the remaining people will be so great that compared to the previous multitude, hardly a tenth part will remain. And even in the land itself there will be desolation (for this place can be understood in two ways: that hardly a tenth part will remain in the whole world, and that hardly a small part of the people will be reserved in Judea). Again, the remaining people will be for plundering, when after nearly fifty years Adrian will come and completely plunder the land of Judea, to such an extent that it will be compared to a terebinth and an oak tree that has lost its acorns. Finally, after the ultimate devastation, even the laws of the state were suspended, and the Jews were prohibited from entering the…
Isaiah heard with sighing, and yet with obedience, in what the mission to which he had so cheerfully offered himself was to consist. Isa 6:11. "Then said I, Lord, how long?" He inquired how long this service of hardening and this state of hardness were to continue - a question forced from him by his sympathy with the nation to which he himself belonged (cf., Exo 32:9-14), and one which was warranted by the certainty that God, who is ever true to His promises, could not cast off Israel as a people for ever. The answer follows in Isa 6:11-13 : "Until towns are wasted without inhabitant, and houses are without man, and the ground shall be laid waste, a wilderness, and Jehovah shall put men far…
how long . . . until . . . the whole country is a wasteland: During the prophet’s ministry (740 to 685 BC), the nation was plagued by wars, famines, and other forms of devastation.
Rashi on Isaiah 6:11
Until when will they make their heart heavy and not listen?
And He said I know that they will not repent until retribution comes upon them and they go into exile, and the cities will be desolate without inhabitants.
lies waste and desolate an expression of solitude, without an inhabitant.